Articles. Looked at the Rockets. West was weak, they represented it the prior year, yet got upset by a 39 win team this year. How? Why? And who is to blame?
One thing, a huge part of Olajuwon's argument is his D. But the Sonics' stars seemingly gave Houston more than they could handle in this series offensively.
ROCKETS VS. SONICS: A LOOK BACK AT 1986-87
This was the bleakest point of the Rockets' season. The 56-point loss was the worst home defeat in NBA history. Akeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson were both recovering from ankle sprains, and Robert Reid was playing on a right knee that contained torn cartilage. After the game, Reid decided to undergo arthroscopic surgery. The defeat and the injury to Reid prompted General Manager Ray Patterson to acquire point guard Dirk Minniefield from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Olajuwon watched the game from the stands and left at halftime, along with many other spectators. "I just couldn't take it," Olajuwon said. In the second half, fans were cheering every Seattle basket.
The Rockets made their first trip to Seattle, with Olajuwon back in the lineup but nowhere near full speed. He took a beating from the double-teaming Seattle defense and was ejected with 11 minutes to go when he and Clemon Johnson exchanged punches. Olajuwon had only 11 points for his abbreviated night's work. The Sonics outrebounded Houston 46-34, and the Rockets shot .667 from the line, prompting Coach Bill Fitch to comment, "We shot free throws like a bunch of spastics." Sampson was sulking over an offense that left him in a high post instead of close to the basket, and he had only four rebounds for the game. Dale Ellis led Seattle with 33 points, Tom Chambers had 26.
It was payback time in The Summit, as the Sonics returned to the scene of their 56-point bombing of the Rockets. This was a near-reverse of the December game, as Houston led by 40 points with eight minutes left. At this point in the season, the Rockets were pulling out of their slump. Lewis Lloyd (25 points) led a fast-break attack, often set up by Sampson's rebounding and outlet passing. Sampson had gone eight consecutive games with six or fewer rebounds, but he had nine in this game and scored 21 points. Olajuwon was nearing 100-percent health and scored 17 points. Seven Rockets were in double figures, while Ellis and Xavier McDaniel led Seattle with 21 and Sampson held Chambers to 15.
The Rockets were a weary team, playing their fifth game in seven days and fourth in a row on the road. They trailed most of the game but put on a rally in the final minutes and missed tying the game when Allen Leavell's 3-point shot swished through the net a second too late to beat the final horn. The Sonics' Big 3 of Chambers, McDaniel and Ellis were unstoppable, scoring 29, 27 and 23 points, respectively. Rodney McCray led Houston with 20, while Reid, Jim Petersen and Olajuwon all scored 19. Seattle worked Olajuwon over with double-teaming from its big men, Alton Lister with either Clemon Johnson or Maurice Lucas. Olajuwon fouled out with two minutes left in the game.
Despite a triple-double by Olajuwon, the Rockets lost a double-overtime thriller in The Summit. Fitch complained about the refereeing of Jess Kersey, but the Sonics played an impressive game, with Chambers scoring a career-high 42 and Ellis 35. The visitors hit six of seven 3-point shots. The Rockets had a miserable start, hitting 8 of their first 23 shots and falling behind 32-23 in the first quarter. They battled back to tie at 109 in regulation, as Leavell made a 3-point shot with two seconds left. Olajuwon finished with 38 points, 17 rebounds, 12 blocked shots and 7 steals.
Sleepwalking to a win/Despite inadequate rest, Sonics looked good in victory
FRAN BLINEBURY
THOSE SURE WERE some funny looking Texans, decked out in galoshes and umbrellas instead of boots and 10-gallon hats.
Since when does I-45 run all the way from Houston to the state of Washington? And how long ago was it that Puget Sound moved to this side of the Red River?
No, those weren't the Dallas Mavericks out there on the floor Saturday afternoon and that probably explains why there were so many empty seats at The Summit. Disappointed Dick Motta fans.
But they weren't nearly as disappointed as the fans who did show up to see the Lone Star party-crashing Seattle SuperSonics get the Rockets' attention with a 111-106 overtime slap in the face in the second-round playoff series opener.
If you thought that was bad, now ponder what the Sonics might be capable of doing when they're wide awake. After all, this was a Seattle team that was walking into a set-up situation.
The Sonics had wrapped up their first-round upset of the Mavericks on Thursday night in Seattle, while the Rockets were at home dusting off the Portland Twinkies, then had to face a wake-up call on Friday that arrived before the crack of dawn. The Sonics had a 6:45 a.m. departure time and arrived in Houston just in time to bus to The Summit for practice.
"Did we watch film yesterday?" said Tom Chambers back to a questioner. "I don't remember."
That's right, the Sonics were still in Slumberland, reliving the dream win over Dallas when they touched down in Texas. Who would have blamed them if they'd all plopped down on the baggage carousel and gone to sleep.
That's what happened to Denver a year ago, when the Nuggets had to make a similar all-day trip from Portland to Houston for the start of a second-round series and promptly dozed through a thorough beating by the Rockets.
There was the tough travel to consider, as well as the emotional letdown for the Sonics after their upset.
This was a Seattle club that was supposed to trudge out for opening tap looking like the cast of "Night of the Living Dead," but it was instead the Rockets who sleepwalked like zombies.
Missed layups, 21 turnovers, poor decisions.
The Rockets got this loss the old-fashioned way. They earned it.
"Seattle is a good team that is playing at a higher level right now," said Rockets Coach Bill Fitch. "But I'll tell you, they didn't play as well today as they have at times in the other (Dallas) series."
Frightening, perhaps, but true.
Just check out the numbers that show Seattle shooting just .465 (46 of 99) from the field and getting outrebounded 51-36. Yet the Sonics won.
Seattle's starting front line of Chambers, Xavier McDaniel and Clemon Johnson shot a combined 16-for-46. Yet the Sonics won.
Seattle blew a six-point lead in the last 2:06 of regulation time. Yet the Sonics won.
Seattle did it with a gutty, patient, determined attack that befuddled guards Allen Leavell and Robert Reid and threw the Rockets' powerful inside game out of whack. Akeem Olajuwon had 28 points, Rodney McCray 15 and Ralph Sampson 14, but there were too many other blown opportunities when a little more patience and the proper pass by the guards could have produced even bigger results.
Portland's Mike Schuler might have the NBA coach-of-the-year trophy sitting in his living room, but it was Seattle's Bernie Bickerstaff who employed a defensive scheme that doubled and tripled down low on the Twin Towers, yet also found time to get back outside and put a hand in the faces of the perimeter shooters.
Since the playoffs started, the Sonics have moved their game up a notch, but Bickerstaff, too, deserves credit for handling his personnel like a master puppeteer. In Game 1, he employed an 11-man rotation, at one time or another using everything but Curtis Kitchen's sink.
He's got the enforcer Maurice Lucas to come in and create havoc by using all of the veteran's tricks of the trade, pushing, shoving and trying to provoke an emotional reaction from Olajuwon and Sampson. On Saturday it succeeded in getting Sampson to blow his cool and throw an elbow in the third quarter.
Bickerstaff has Danny Young to back up Nate McMillan at point guard, Kevin Williams to scrap and make the hustle plays like a junkyard dog and CBA refugee Eddie Johnson to provide some timely outside shooting.
What's more, the Sonics still have the mending Alton Lister (broken right foot) ready to come off the shelf before too much longer in this series.
And, of course, they already have the state of the art nuclear weaponry in Dale Ellis to bomb from the outside. After lighting up his former Dallas teammates for an average of 29.5 points and 8 rebounds in the first-round series, Ellis burned the Rockets for 34 points, including the killing 3-pointer with 14 seconds left in overtime.
Before you start laughing too hard at the poor Mavericks for trading Ellis away last summer for the bargain-basement price of Al Wood, think about this pearl of information from the Dallas front office. The Mavericks offered Ellis to the Rockets for Steve Harris and were flatly rejected.
Now the Rockets couldn't use an outside shooter like Ellis, could they?
Oh well, back to the series at hand, and if you're counting this makes five wins in six games with the Rockets this season for Seattle, including three victories in Houston.
This is a team that Red Auerbach labeled the worst in the league at the beginning of the year, one that is now making an Alysheba longshot run at showing up in Boston for the NBA Finals and blowing cigar smoke back in the old man's face. Yes, the Sonics are for real.
"Everything has fallen into place," said Chambers. "We wanted to get on a roll before the playoffs.
"Going in, we really didn't know we could win. Now we know."
Now we all know.
Just imagine what the Sonics might do when they're awake.
ROCKETS VS. SONICS/GAME 1/Sonics power past Rockets
The Seattle SuperSonics continue to mess with Texas. First they tossed Dallas out of the NBA playoffs, and now they're going after the Rockets in quest of upset No. 2.
Perhaps this one shouldn't be so surprising. After all, if the Sonics can go 0-5 against the Mavericks in the regular season and then demolish them, three games to one, in the playoffs, they figure to be a problem for the Rockets, who had a 1-4 record against Seattle this season.
The Sonics showed Saturday afternoon in The Summit that they still have Houston's number: The final scoreboard numbers were Seattle 111, Houston 106.
So the Sonics, a not-so-super 39-43 during the regular season, lead the Rockets 1-0 in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals.
Dale Ellis, who went on a rampage against the Mavericks for not playing him, then trading him and finally insulting him, must have carried his grudge to Houston. He ripped the Rockets for 34 points, including a 3-pointer that buried them in overtime.
Ellis is the 25-points-a-game scorer who became incensed when Dallas Coach Dick Motta said he "could play 10 years and still not beat out Rolando Blackman."
Ellis proceeded to score 29.5 points a game against the Mavericks in the opening round, which closed the season for Dallas.
The Rockets have been careful not to say anything against Ellis, but apparently he still hasn't cooled off.
Nor have the other Sonics. They are reveling in their underdog, Cinderella role.
They came into town complaining about fatigue (they had a cross-country flight from Seattle on Friday) and saying they just didn't know if they could avoid a letdown after their emotional series against the Mavericks.
"It was a concern of ours not to let up, after our series with Dallas," Ellis said., "We wanted to keep playing intense basketball."
Unquestionably, they did.
Sonics Coach Bernie Bickerstaff has always had a knack for defensing the Rockets, and he also has the personnel - even without starting center Alton Lister.
The Sonics are one of the few teams that can physically match the Rockets, and like many teams, they can outfinesse them.
Clemon Johnson and Maurice Lucas are the Sonics' leading bruisers. Johnson got into a fight with Akeem Olajuwon in a regular-season game, and Lucas squared off against Ralph Sampson in Saturday's game.
Lucas had been grappling with Sampson in the second quarter, and the Rockets player jammed his left elbow into Lucas' face as he was driving with the ball.
The two players were separated before a fight developed.
"That's the way the playoffs are," Lucas said. "You have to play hard. Going against Akeem is no picnic. He beats you up even when he has the ball."
Although well defensed by Lucas and Johnson, Olajuwon did his part, scoring 28 points and hauling in 16 rebounds.
Sampson was usually matched against Tom Chambers and had his usual problems with the Sonics' 6-foot-10 power forward.
Chambers, the All-Star MVP, scored 24 points, beating Jim Petersen outside and taking Sampson inside. Sampson was limited to 14 points.
The Rockets knew they had to contain Seattle's big three of Ellis, Chambers and Xavier McDaniel. All averaged more than 22 points per game this season.
Only McDaniel was kept under control.
Rodney McCray "X"-ed out the X-Man in the first half, as McDaniel went 0-for-8 from the floor. He finished the game with 11 points; McCray had 15.
But McCray, one of the Rockets' most consistent players, let his team down in overtime. When he missed three of four free throws, Houston trailed 101-98 with 3:22 left.
Ellis put the Rockets away when he sank a 3-pointer for a 109-104 lead with 14 seconds left.
"Missed layups, missed free throws," moaned Rockets Coach Bill Fitch. "Five missed layups. You can't look good when you drive in there and miss easy shots. We didn't have a guard today that took it to their press."
As the Portland Trail Blazers did in the opening round, the Sonics periodically ran a defensive press at Houston, and with good results. The Rockets committed 21 turnovers - 14 in the first half.
Rockets guard Robert Reid said, "Everything they ran we saw in the Dallas films. Too many times we had the ball in our hand and we ended up losing it.
"We just didn't come out with our heads screwed on."
Reid offered an example of the Rockets' mental failure: "We didn't start to go to Akeem until the second quarter."
While Bickerstaff's defense may not have surprised the Rockets, they were unable to solve it.
Rather than leave the Houston guards open for jump shots from the perimeter, as the Trail Blazers had done, the Sonics moved their players back and forth, guarding whoever had the ball and creating a wall that was difficult to pass around.
There were many times when McDaniel was standing in the paint, guarding no one. But Hugh Evans and Dick Bavetta cited Seattle only once for illegal defense, so that earned the Sonics only a warning and got the Rockets nothing.
In the regular season, Seattle was not one of the NBA's top defensive teams, but Cedric Maxwell noted: "They picked up the intensity for the playoffs.
"They rotated extremely well. We'll study it and break it down. We just don't have the proper spacing now."
But a discouraging thought for the Rockets is that, according to Fitch, the Sonics "can play better. I don't think they played as well today as a couple of other times we've seen them in the season."
The Sonics got away with a victory Saturday that they really didn't expect to get.
"People were talking about how we have to steal one down here," McDaniel said. "Well, we got that one. Now we're looking for a sweep. We want to get greedy."
Chambers admitted the Rockets "do have more talent than we do. Any time you have people like Petersen and Maxwell not getting quality minutes, you know they have a great team."
Chambers recognized that the Rockets were off their game Saturday. But as he pointed out, "The Mavericks played poorly because we made them play poorly. We're trying to do that to Houston."
So far, they have.
Sonic hustle compounded Rocket woes
It was only moments after the Houston Rockets had extinguished the Portland Trail Blazers, and the human quip machine, Cedric Maxwell, was describing his elation at playing alongside Akeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson.
"You give the big guys the juice, and they start jumping all over the place," said Maxwell. "You come out there and give them a shock, and it takes.
"With the Clippers, I'd give Benoit (Benjamin) the juice, and he'd just stand there. He was shock-proof. These guys, you give them the juice, and they get juiced."
Somewhere between Thursday and Saturday, someone pulled the plug. The power line connecting the little guys to the big guys developed a short. Seattle's whippets interfered with the juice, and in the end the outage had a lot to do with Houston's ambushing.
"They trapped us a lot to slow the ball down," said Rocket playmaker Allen Leavell, who had to contend with Seattle defensive harassment from end zone to end zone.
"When we finally got the ball into the attacking zone, they only had to play defense for 12 or 13 seconds. We didn't have enough time to work the big men as much as we wanted. We didn't have time to get it done."
Sampson had a particularly difficult time getting untracked. In the first half he only played 10 minutes, and in those 10 minutes he could get off just two shots.
He was a big factor in the fourth-quarter resurgence, but for the game he could get up only 10 shots, scoring 14 points.
"It wasn't extreme pressure they were putting on us out front," he said, "but there was some pressure. It was enough that when we finally got the ball into position, we would only have 10 seconds to run a play.
"That meant we couldn't always run the play we wanted to run. A lot of times we would have to run a quicker play. Sometimes we wound up having to take a shot that wasn't a good percentage shot."
Rocket Coach Bill Fitch was not convinced that the game was a defensive gem on either end of the court. Seattle could hit but 46.5 percent of its shots and the Rockets 46.3, but "I didn't think there was anything outstanding about either defense," he said.
"We got a lot of good shots. The defense we saw was nothing that we hadn't seen for 82 games this year. We got beaten because we didn't make our shots, and because we didn't take care of the ball."
Fitch noted that Sampson often had single coverage. "But they (the Sonics) got away with it," he said. "That hurts."
Seattle was able to swarm the Towers like bees going after the honeycomb. When the ball would come inside, Olajuwon or Sampson would be faced with a forest of upraised arms.
Too often, when they passed the ball back out to the open man for the perimeter shot, the outside man couldn't connect.
Robert Reid, one of the perimeter men, volunteered for the goat's horns. "If we are going to expect Ralph and Akeem to get open, then Allen and I are going to have to start hitting the outside shots," he said.
"When the big guys got it, you could almost see them (the Sonics) saying, `Hey, go at it.' We didn't make enough outside shots to get the logjam away from in the middle."
"They dared us to beat them from the outside," said Cedric Maxwell, "and today we couldn't do it."
In the Seattle locker room, the Sonics were saying they weren't exactly begging to be beaten from anywhere.
"Our team hustle had a lot to do with their (the Rockets') problems," said Xavier McDaniels. "When we doubled down (on Olajuwon or Sampson), we rotated quickly (to cover the other three Rockets).
"We always assume the shooters are going to hit the outside shots. That's why they play in the NBA.
"It seemed like the Portland coaches were saying, `Hey Robert, beat us, beat us!' We respect their outside shooting too much to just let them go free out there."
Tom Chambers said the Sonics won't be able to blindly chase after the ball when the Rockets bring it across half-court.
"They pass the ball too well to have a total half-court press," he said.
"But we have a good defensive scheme when we double down. We rotate properly."
Meaning that when the Sonics send an extra man running at one of the Towers, the other Sonics do an exceptional job of zoning long enough to cover the freed-up Rocket.
"We made them play poorly," said Chambers.
Maxwell wasn't so sure this one was lost because of superior defensive schemes, or pressure on the Rocket guards, or the outside shots of Reid and Leavell that failed to connect.
"I'm really afraid that maybe they just out-hustled us today," he said. "They got too many loose balls, they did everything a team has to do to win in front of a hostile crowd.
"That's when you look back and feel you really cheated yourself, when you play at home and feel you got outhustled. This one does not feel very good."
Sonics boom as Rockets do late fold
After their 99-97 loss to the Seattle SuperSonics on Tuesday night, the Rockets were left with no excuse and not much hope for advancement to the Western Conference finals.
The Rockets had every opportunity to win this game against a team which except for Dale Ellis, didn't put on a scintillating performance.
But the Sonics played just well enough to take a 2-0 lead on Houston's home court, The Summit. Now this best-of-seven series moves to Seattle, where the Sonics can sweep by winning twice at their Coliseum.
After Tuesday's game, Akeem Olajuwon sighed and said, "It's not going to be easy, but you can't give up."
Fellow Twin Tower Ralph Sampson observed, "They're going home and their confidence is sky high right now. You could see that when they came off the court."
"Definitely," Coach Bill Fitch said, "they're putting dirt in our face. We're either all through or it's just starting. It doesn't look good."
Said Cedric Maxwell: "You have to look inside. That's the time you have to have a gut check. We have some great players on this team. We have some people who have to be leaders in key situations."
In the clutch, the Rockets were able to get the ball to their key player, Olajuwon, but even he failed them this time.
Olajuwon did score 27 points, while Sampson powered for 25, but it was Ellis who turned out to be the main scorer, with 30 for Seattle.
He came through on his prediction that the night he spent in jail Saturday for a charge of hindering an arrest (of teammate Kevin Williams) might serve to motivate him more. The way Ellis was shooting, he could have scored from about anywhere short of the county jail.
Pregame talk from both teams contained promises of a well-played game set for Tuesday. Both the Sonics and Rockets assured everyone that they were going to shoot better and play better than they had in Game 1, which Seattle won by five points.
But the way the Rockets played the first quarter, they were lucky the Houston police didn't arrest them for loitering.
The Rockets committed eight turnovers in the first quarter which led to 10 points and a 28-21 lead by the Sonics, who were anything but composed as they turned the ball over six times.
In the first period, Sampson missed a dunk shot and had four turnovers.
The second period had to be better, and it was, although the Rockets continued to make absurd errors. Jim Petersen, for example, blew an in-bounds play by stepping in bounds on the line. And Robert Reid tried a shot he makes only in his wildest dreams: a one-hand, running push from the left corner.
Fitch made a key personnel decision when Olajuwon picked up his second personal foul one minute into the second period.
The Rockets' coach pulled Olajuwon and went with Sampson at center the rest of the half.
Responding to the opportunity to play a featured role, Sampson hit four baskets in a 2 1/2-minute span to pull Houston from a 36-29 deficit to within 38-35.
Rodney McCray tied the game at 38 with a three-point play with 4:45 left in the half.
But the Sonics quickly regained their lead when Ellis made a 3-point shot. Houston trailed 52-48 at intermission.
The Rockets patched their game up in the third quarter, as the Towers took control. Olajuwon scored 16 points during the period, and Sampson had nine, including a 3-pointer from the right side which sent Houston ahead 69-64.
A spinning layup drive by Sampson made it 75-68, and Houston entered the fourth quarter ahead 79-70.
The Sonics rallied in the fourth quarter. When Ellis hit a turnaround jumper from 20 feet, Houston's lead was trimmed to 83-81.
The Rockets held onto a narrow lead, as Olajuwon made two free throws to send Houston ahead 93-89 with three minutes remaining.
Seattle closed within 95-94 when Eddie Johnson drove the baseline for a basket and hit a free throw to complete a three-point play.
A driving layup by Leavell gave Houston a 97-94 lead, but two jumpers by Ellis brought Seattle the lead, 98-97 with 1:33 left.
The Sonics had a chance to move farther ahead, when Leavell passed the ball to Chambers. But Chambers missed his jump shot, giving Houston possession with 50 seconds left.
Olajuwon fired a line drive from 21 feet which almost drilled a hole in the glass, but when Alton Lister, back from the injured list, missed his shot at the other end, Houston got another chance, taking a timeout with 17 seconds to go.
Once again the Rockets blew their chance, as Olajuwon couldn't convert an alley-oop pass from McCray.
With eight seconds to go, the Rockets in desperation fouled Chambers, who gave Houston yet another opportunity when he missed one of his two free throws, making the score 99-97.
Olajuwon got a shot off from 15 feet but missed, and time expired.
Towers quiet any talk of sweep 102- 84
SEATTLE - With one foot in the grave and a closet full of brooms at the SuperSonics disposal, the Rockets put a stop to all the sweep talk with a convincing display of basketball Thursday night.
Trying to become only the second team in NBA history to win a seven-game playoff series after losing the first two at home, the Rockets dusted off the Seattle SuperSonics 102-84 in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinal series.
To re-enter this series, the Rockets needed dominating performances from their Twin Towers, Akeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson. On this particular night the Towers stood as tall as the World Trade Center.
Sampson hit 7 of 10 field goals, 4 of 5 free throws and scored 18 points, while Olajuwon scored 33 points, had 4 blocked shots and 11 rebounds.
"The Twin Towers dominated the first period," said Jim Petersen, the third tower. "And getting us off to a good start was as important a key as anything. They didn't have a lot of room down there, but they made some pretty incredible shots."
Sampson was limited to 26 minutes because of fouls, but Petersen kept him from being missed, as he scored 10 points and contributed 5 rebounds in 20 minutes.
But the Rockets' defense was as much a factor in this game as their offense.
Seattle was held to 13 points in the second quarter, and Dale Ellis, who has been averaging 30 points a game in this series, could manage only 12 Thursday night.
"We finally figured out a way to stop Dale Ellis with defensive pressure," Petersen said. "We played team defense."
Cedric Maxwell, a forward who played guard on defense to try to stop Ellis, said, "With a great shooter you have to throw his rhythm off and that's what we did tonight."
Robert Reid played 46 minutes in an unusually warm building and deserves much of the credit for defensing Ellis. But Reid said modestly - and accurately - that Ellis was not shooting as well as he had in his other playoff games.
"This is one of those rare games," Reid said, "where he was just off. I don't foresee him being that way Saturday."
The Rockets get a chance to even the series in Game 4 here Saturday at 2:30 Houston time.
"We had our backs to the wall," Rodney McCray said, "and we just came out here with the intensity and the idea we were going to do whatever it takes to win."
Coach Bill Fitch said he made no tactical changes for this game, but that the Rockets did a better job of "spacing" - spreading out so the Sonics would have to resort to more man-on-man defense.
And, Fitch noted: "We didn't turn it over against them as much as we did before."
One reason for fewer turnovers (a total of 14) was more rest for point guard Allen Leavell, who was exhausted by playing 48 minutes in Game 2.
Leavell played 33 minutes Thursday and made just one turnover. Dirk Minniefield spelled him with seven minutes and 10 points.
"We really tried not to think about what people were saying," Minniefield said. "We knew we dug a hole for ourselves. We didn't count ourselves out.
"We're still down, but we're a lot better off than we were yesterday."
The Sonics entered the court to a rousing ovation from a capacity crowd at the Seattle Coliseum, while the Rockets were soundly booed.
It wasn't long, though, before the Rockets made themselves feel at home. After falling behind 13-8, Houston's Twin Towers took control of the boards and worked out of a double low post to pound the Sonics inside.
Houston went ahead 16-15 when Sampson hooked over Tom Chambers. Sampson followed with a postup shot over Chambers and a free throw for a three-point play and a 19-15 lead. And a rebound and follow shot by Sampson stretched the margin to 21-15.
A minute later Sampson reached into the crowd, Charles Barkley-style, for a save. That play led to a fadeaway rainbow by Olajuwon which dropped in softly for a 25-17 Houston lead.
Playing with poise and confidence, the Rockets kept rolling, to a 29-20 lead by the end of the first quarter.
Sampson scored 11 points in the first period but drew his third foul two minutes into the second quarter and had to take a seat.
However, Petersen filled in well, while another bench player, Maxwell, came in to play sticky defense on Ellis, who scored only eight points (3 of 10 shooting) in the first half.
When Petersen climbed a ladder for a rebound and banked a shot from the lane, Houston led 53-33 with two minutes left in the half. McCray followed with a free throw, and when Leavell hit from 22 feet, Houston led 56-33, which was the score at halftime.
In the first half, Houston outshot Seattle .571 to .366, and the Rockets hit 8 of 9 free throws while Seattle made only 2 of 8. Houston also had a rebounding advantage of 23-18.
The Rockets' biggest concern by then was Sampson's foul trouble. He sustained his fourth personal with six minutes left in the third quarter.
But Petersen continued his good work, hitting a baseline shot to make it 72-49 with five minutes to go in the period.
The Sonics began to rally at that point, with an 8-3 run that left Houston ahead 75-57 entering the final period.
Chambers beat Olajuwon on a jump ball and ended up scoring at the other end to close the gap to 15 (77-62) with 10 minutes left in the game.
Seattle used a pressure defense and fresh players off the bench to wear down Leavell, and with 8:21 left Fitch changed point guards, sending in Minniefield.
The seldom-used Minniefield did his job, running the offense smoothly and hitting a 22-foot jumper from the right side to stretch the lead to 83-62.
With 5:38 to go, Minniefield went to the line and made two free throws to make the score 86-66.
That was enough to send fans streaming out of the Coliseum.
ROCKETS REPORT
Saturday
Tom Chambers' 38 points led the Seattle SuperSonics to a 117-102 victory over the Rockets, who fell behind 3-1 in the Western Conference semifinal series.
Play of the game
With 10 minutes left in the game and Seattle ahead by 10, Dale Ellis hit a 3-pointer as the Rockets' defense mysteriously sagged off. That shot buried the Rockets.
Hot and cold
Hot: Seattle's Chambers, 13 of 22 shots, 12 of 13 free throws, 8 rebounds, 38 points; Ellis, 14 of 26 shots, 32 points; Houston's Akeem Olajuwon, 8 of 11 shots, 20 points; Rodney McCray, 8 of 13, 20 points.
Cold: Robert Reid, 3 of 11 shots, 6 points; Allen Leavell, 4 of 12 shots; Seattle's Xavier McDaniel, 4 of 14 field goals; Alton Lister, 1 of 8.
The bench
The Sonics continued to get key contributions from their bench, which scored 23 points and played solid defense. Kevin Williams scored 14 points in 19 minutes and had 2 steals. Maurice Lucas had 7 points and 5 rebounds in 16 minutes.
Houston's bench scored 25 points, 10 by Jim Petersen (in 29 minutes).
The crowd
The Seattle Coliseum sold out with 14,559 in attendance, including Charlie Kerfeld, the former Astros relief pitcher who was farmed out to Tucson. Kerfeld's team was playing in nearby Tacoma. The Seattle fans were loud and partisan throughout the game Saturday. They left chanting, "Beat LA," in reference to the Sonics' likely opponent in the conference finals if they can finish off Houston.
For Pete's sake
Rockets reserve Petersen, like his teammates, had considerable problems guarding Chambers. But Chambers said, "I hate playing against Pete. He's always punching me in the kidneys and trying to do anything else to bother me. Pete makes you pay for everything you get. But Coach (Bill) Fitch seems to pull him out of the game every time I make a basket against him."
Coming up
Game 5 will be played at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in The Summit. If a sixth game is necessary, it will be in Seattle on Thursday night.
Ellis, Chambers mow down Rockets
SEATTLE - They are the Seattle SuperSonics' brightest stars, the men who must respond in big-game situations.
And this was the Sonics' biggest game of the year.
Guard Dale Ellis, eager to rebound from a 5-for-19 shooting performance in a disappointing playoff loss to Houston two days earlier, formulated his game plan prior to the tipoff.
"Even if I had to force them, I was determined to take a couple of shots early, determined to get into the flow of the game," Ellis said. "I wasn't going to allow myself to become tentative."
Forward Tom Chambers established his plan while sitting on the Seattle bench most of the opening quarter, having been whistled for two fouls in the first 95 seconds.
"I was disappointed, but the early fouls may have worked to my advantage," Chambers said. "I was able to get rid of all my anxieties. I was able to watch exactly what was taking place on the court. And I was able to figure out my game plan."
Their game plans destroyed the Rockets on Saturday when the Sonics won 117-102.
Chambers, utilizing both his outside shot and his strong drive toward the basket, blistered the Rockets for 38 points in 36 minutes. He was effective, too, defensively against Houston forward Ralph Sampson, who scored only 18 points.
Ellis, producing mainly from long distance, scored 32 points in 43 minutes. He took 26 shots, hardly a tentative outing, and made 14.
Their 70 points almost doubled the 36-point combined output of Chambers (24) and Ellis (12) in Game 3 here Thursday night. And they are prime reasons Seattle now leads the best-of-seven series 3-1.
"We felt we lost Game 3 because of our shooting," Ellis said. "We knew we had to shoot better today.
"We had considered Game 3 the most important game of this series, too, because we thought if we knocked the Rockets off then and went ahead 3-0, they would lose their desire.
"But when we lost, that made today's game a must-win situation for us. If we had lost twice at home and gone back to Houston (for Game 5 Tuesday night) tied 2-2, we probably would have begun having a few doubts about ourselves."
Even under intense pressure, though, Ellis said he was relaxed. "I wasn't at all tight during the game," the Sonics' frequent playoff hero said. "My Game 3 shooting troubles were in the back of my mind while I was warming up. But as soon as the game started, I forgot about it.
"I was able to get all the shots I wanted today, too, because we moved the ball around much better and we ran better."
Chambers, by his standards (45.6-percent accuracy during the regular season), had not shot well throughout the series, despite making key offensive contributions at critical moments.
"I was working hard, trying to rebound well and play strong defense against Ralph, but the outside shot hadn't been there until today," Chambers said.
Because Chambers was on-target from outside this game, however, Sampson or his backup, Jim Petersen, were forced away from the basket to guard him. Then, Chambers began to utilize his quickness and repeatedly drove inside for layups.
"We wanted to go to the basket," Chambers said. "And when they have to guard you skin-tight outside, it opens up those lanes for you to drive.
"Today, Ralph had to get out after me, which he would prefer not to do. Put yourself in his position. How many times does Ralph Sampson have to come out to three-point land to guard a power forward? He's not comfortable out there. But if I hit my outside shots, he has no choice. And that allows me an opportunity to drive by him."
It didn't hurt his chances either, Chambers was quick to admit, that both Sampson and Houston center Akeem Olajuwon were mired in foul trouble almost the entire game.
"I've driven past Ralph before in this series, but Akeem was always waiting for me," Chambers said. "And I don't like driving into Akeem. Nobody likes to see Akeem coming at him. He may be the best shot-blocker in the league.
"But today, Akeem was on the bench a long time, and when he was in the game he couldn't be as aggressive because of the fouls. We were all able to go to the hole more often."
Teammate Ellis appreciated every Chambers basket. "When he gets on a roll like that, I like to get the ball to him," Ellis said. "When Tom gets that certain feeling, he's almost unstoppable.
"And when he's hot," Ellis said, smiling, "that makes it easier for me to get my shots because they can't concentrate on me."
Defensively, Chambers drew plaudits, too, from Seattle Coach Bernie Bickerstaff, who said: "He did an excellent job of stopping Houston's lob passes underneath."
"I tried to slip in front of Ralph on those lobs, to stay between him and the basket," Chambers said. "It's difficult, though, because he is so big and strong."
Nothing seemed too difficult this game for Chambers. Or Ellis. Both warned, however, that their job isn't over.
"I'm confident and I'm enthusiastic," Ellis said. "But this is no time to celebrate."
"It was a war and a battle today," Chambers said. "We don't want to keep playing them. We want to get it over."
Their next challenge is Tuesday night at The Summit.
Sonics win Game 4 by knockout/Physical pounding puts Rockets down
SEATTLE - It was trench warfare, hand-to-hand combat. "It was a battlefield out there," Jim Petersen said. "Elbows were flying and bodies were falling everywhere."
And most of the casualties were suffered by the lads in the red uniforms of the Houston Rockets.
Surprisingly, the Seattle SuperSonics were the more physical team. And it was the Rockets who got into the most foul trouble.
The Twin Towers crumbled under an onslaught of their own personals. It was twin suicide. Akeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson took themselves out of the game Saturday afternoon, and they all but took their team out of the Western Conference semifinals.
The Rockets lost 117-102 to fall behind 3-1 in this best-of-seven series. The Sonics can finish off the Rockets with one more victory, which could come as early as Tuesday night.
Game 5 is in The Summit, where the Rockets lost the first two games of the series.
They lost here Saturday partly because Olajuwon and Sampson started trading fouls with Seattle's big guys - Maurice Lucas, Alton Lister, Clemon Johnson and Tom Chambers.
"They've got a lot of guys to shuffle in," Petersen said. "They can give a lot of fouls."
Seattle's big four accumulated 13 fouls, but they spread them around.
Olajuwon picked up two fouls in the first three minutes of the game and played only 10 minutes of the first half. He got his fifth foul midway through the third period and finished the day with 20 points in 27 minutes.
Sampson was also effective offensively, when he was in the game. But he fouled out with 18 points and seven rebounds after playing 33 minutes.
With the Towers in trouble, Coach Bill Fitch had to call on Petersen, who too much of the time was a falling body or little more than a dead body.
Chambers fired round after round of accurate shots from close range, long range, any range. He ran roughshod over Petersen and Sampson on his way to a series-high 38-point game.
"Chambers was on a freight train," Petersen said. "He was putting his head down and going to the hole."
While Chambers attacked mostly by rail, Dale Ellis went on a bombing mission, hitting three of four 3-point shots and scoring 32 points.
Basically, what happened was the Rockets' proud defense collapsed like the Hart campaign.
"We didn't play Ellis right," Cedric Maxwell explained. "We didn't get on him quick. He had a lot of shots coming off picks."
As for defensing Chambers, Maxwell credited Sonics Coach Bernie Bickerstaff with "getting us into some different matchups. They isolated him a lot more against Ralph and Pete."
Fitch agreed: "We never cut Chambers off. We didn't have team help on defense."
Rebounding was another malfunctioning part of the Rockets' game. Seattle had a 50-35 advantage, prompting Petersen's admission that "they certainly outhustled us on the boards."
Sampson and Olajuwon might have been more of a rebounding and defensive presence were it not for the run of fouls called by John Vanak and Darrell Garretson.
Olajuwon said, "I thought the early fouls stopped me from being aggressive on defense."
The Sonics clearly won the fouling game. Some of their fouls were vicious but smart, as when Lucas literally grabbed Petersen around the neck to stop him from a close-in certain basket.
Other times the Sonics would shove the Rocket towers when the officials were looking the other way.
Sampson may have been on target with his postgame complaint that the Sonics "were out there throwing people to the floor and getting away with it."
Ellis admitted, "The refs kind of let things get out of hand. This was the most physical game in the series."
When the Rockets retaliated, they were often caught.
"We got them in foul trouble," Chambers said, "so we went inside and went to the well."
Another problem for the Rockets was a jammed knuckle on Olajuwon's right hand. Fitch thought his All-Star center was "favoring his right hand" and having ball-control difficulty.
Olajuwon played with the hand taped and committed two turnovers in a critical two-minute stretch to start the second quarter.
The score was tied at 31 entering the period. But Olajuwon made an off-target lob for Rodney McCray, who followed with a bad lob for Sampson. Then Olajuwon lost the ball to Lister, and a minute later Sampson threw it away.
By the time that turnover party was over, Seattle was up 39-31. The Rockets never again got closer than five points. They had 20 turnovers for the game.
When the Rockets got within 86-81 in the fourth quarter, Robert Reid quickly shot them out of the game. His saloon is called Nice 'N EZ but his shot is Hard as Granite.
Reid, who is shooting 35 percent for the series, drove the lane and missed an underhand layup that could have closed the gap to three.
Ellis came back at the other end to score on a 12-foot jumper to make it 88-81.
Then the Sonics were called for an illegal-defense technical, and Reid missed the free throw.
After the 6-foot-8 Reid drove for another missed layup, getting it blocked by 6-7 Xavier McDaniel, the Sonics stretched their lead to 91- 81 on a 3-point play by McDaniel.
Reid admitted, "This is the first time in my playoff career that I've felt tentative. I'm just not assertive, and that's going to change."
But he may have waited too long to make a significant change.
There have been only four occasions in NBA history when a team was down 3-1 and came back to win a playoff series.
The Rockets now have to win three consecutive games against a team that has beaten them seven of the last nine times they've played.
The odds are long, and they get prohibitive if the Towers can't control their fouling.
Rockets had more experience, but Sonics showed more desire
SEATTLE - The clock on the scoreboard at the Seattle Center Coliseum was stuck. The clock on the Rockets' season was running out.
No matter how you looked at it, time was of the essence.
This was the time when the real All-Stars play like All-Stars, the former coaches of the year coach the game of the year and the veterans in the lineup reach down for that something extra that comes with all their seasons of experience.
It was a time to put down the excuses and pick up the gauntlet. The Rockets could look back in complaint at their winter of turmoil and adversity or straight ahead at the challenge in front of them.
It was the time to meet this 12-headed monster called the Seattle SuperSonics head-on and re-assert the superiority that should have been theirs all along, then take this playoff series back to The Screamin' Summit for Game 7. Seventh Heaven.
The franchise that just one year earlier had chosen springtime to flower and blossom into a legitimate championship contender, and was thereby labeled the NBA's budding dynasty, was faced with the embarrassing prospect of having its season snuffed out by the upstart Sonics, a motley collection of cast-offs that had staggered through the regular season with a 39-43 record.
Where was that valuable experience the Rockets had gained in last year's march to the NBA Finals when they blew the first two games of this series on their home court by losing their poise in the clutch?
Where was that confident and cocky attitude that the Rockets had taken into Los Angeles last spring when they knocked the Hollywood glamour-puss smiles right off the faces of the defending champion Lakers?
It was on the faces of the Sonics, that's where.
"I see the same thing in them that we had last year," Robert Reid had said. "I see the same thing the way the Sonics are playing. That's the frightening part.
"I'm seeing this team and I'm saying, `This was us last year."'
Haunted by their own ghosts.
They had been watching the Sonics beat them to every big rebound, outhustle them to every loose ball. They had seen Seattle make most of the big baskets and come up with the majority of the clutch defensive plays.
But having survived Seattle's 21-point comeback in Game 5 on Tuesday, the Rockets also were still seeing a chance to get out of this thing with their skins.
It was time to set things straight.
They had come here fully expecting the raucous reception they had received, the tense atmosphere and the excruciating pressure of standing on the brink of oblivion.
But they had also come armed with the memories of their 102-84 blowout win over the Sonics in this building just one week earlier. No matter how shaky they had looked in blowing that big lead two nights earlier in Houston, they had survived and placed the pressure of winning at home squarely on the shoulders of the Sonics. The Sonics had passed out pompons and party whistles to their 14,751 fans entering the building and cranked up the PA system so that the strains of "Louie, Louie" could have been heard on Mt. Rainier.
It was time to stop the music on the toga party, and that seemed like a difficult task when Sonics ripped off 10 straight points late in the first quarter to take a 36-28 lead.
Here was the biggest game of the season and the Rockets were threatening early to let it just slip through their fingers.
There were offensive fouls by Ralph Sampson and Rodney McCray, walking violations on Akeem Olajuwon, missed layups, air balls and even a pair of errant free throws by the best foul-shooter in the starting lineup, Allen Leavell. Here was the first quarter in which the Rockets clearly needed to establish themselves on foreign turf, and they missed 16 of 25 shots.
The Rockets also came close to losing their composure and taking themselves out of the game when they once more allowed Maurice Lucas to get under their skin. With 2:09 left in the opening quarter, Sampson and Lucas engaged in a shoving match. Olajuwon stepped into the middle of the argument. Coach Bill Fitch had to run onto the floor, pulling his center from the fray and begging him not to get tossed out.
Indeed, Olajuwon calmed down and so did the Rockets. They stopped worrying and complaining about Lucas and started to play. It was as if they finally realized just what was at stake.
The defense tightened, the rebounding became ferocious, and by halftime there was a definitely lull in the party with the Rockets ahead 58-54.
It became a roaring silence with 3:43 left in the third quarter when Sampson connected on an 8-foot hook from the left side to put Houston in front 74-63.
But this had been a series stamped by the Sonics' doggedness when behind and the supposedly pressure-tested Rockets' penchant for wilting in the fourth-quarter heat.
And it happened again. And again. And again.
First Seattle came back and tied it at 92 on Xavier McDaniel's jumper from the key with 7:21 to go.
The Rockets swallowed hard and stretched it back to a six-point lead.
But it takes a silver bullet to stop these Sonics. They tied it again at 98, at 100 and at 102 with 1:41 left.
Even when Akeem tried to knock them into Dreamland with five straight points in 27 seconds, the Sonics came back.
When Dirk Minniefield coughed up the ball at midcourt to Nate MacMillan, Dale Ellis sailed all the way in for a three-point play and it was tied again, this time at 107.
Twenty five seconds to go, and the Rockets couldn't make the play. Olajuwon had 49 points on the night, but his jumper from the left baseline was an air ball.
Tom Chambers grabbed the rebound with one second left.
Overtime.
"Winnin' time," as Magic Johnson calls it.
But the Rockets could not make the winnin' plays.
Four free throws and three of them missed by Sampson in the first overtime. Missed jumpers. Missed hook shots.
Misfires from 18 feet by Reid, a missed free throw at the end of a possible three-point play by Olajuwon and a wide open 15-foot jumper at the foul line missed by Sampson in the last 16 seconds of the second overtime.
Missed chances. Blown opportunities. A dynasty nipped in the bud.
Sonics 128, Rockets 125.
The scoreboard clock was ticking again. But the clock had run out on the Rockets.
